It's the Super Bowl of the Skies! No ticket required.
In a world of people addicted to screens, countless millions of us are stopping everything to see a spectacle in the skies. When a celestial switch is flipped and the lights go out.
The solar eclipse of 2024.
Millions are traveling to be in the path of the total blackout known as totality. Towns in the path of full eclipse are getting rich quick. Hotel rooms, usually $150, are going for $600 and $700 a night.
If we didn't know better, a lot of us would likely freak out as the sun disappeared. The ancient Mayans did. They thought the sun had been eaten - and they had some pretty elaborate rituals to stay safe.
Now our rituals will be simpler. Weird glasses and everyone looking reverently at the sky.
Now from our side of things the eclipse is a not-to-be-missed big event, but its galactic explanation is remarkably simple. Something comes between Earth and the Sun, its source of light. The moon is that "something." In totality, it gets totally dark.
Now while solar eclipses are relatively rare, we experience eclipse personally a lot more frequently than we realize. Not in the sky. But in ourselves.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stuck in the Eclipse."
We all know those times when life turns dark. When our heart is broken. A relationship is broken. Our dream is broken.
Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint the reason for the darkness we feel in our soul. But there is this unrelenting loneliness... this unexplainable sadness... this uneasy fear... this unsettling despair. And it turns dark.
It's easy to get lost in the dark. To make choices that only deepen the darkness. To let our thoughts go to dangerous places. To believe lies about our worth... our life... our future.
There are a lot of factors can contribute to our emotional darkness, but I think much, if not most, of our darkness has a source beyond our circumstances.
Something has come between us and our Source of light.
And that source is revealed in the Bible in these words. Speaking of our Creator, the orbit we were made for, it says, "All things were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). In just six words, God gives us the answer to life's big question - "Why am I here?" Answer: I'm created by God and for God. Not a religion about God, but for a relationship with God.
Then why the spiritual eclipse we live in so much of the time? It must be that something has come between us and Him. But He loves us enough to tell us what it is. Because He's the source of all the light in our life - lasting love... purpose... security... a peace stronger than our storms... a strength greater than our fears.
Here's God says has come between us. "Your sins have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). Sin - that's me doing my life my way instead of His way. Me saying, "God, you run the universe - I'll do me."
And the Sun stops shining. When it goes dark in my soul, I've let some sin come between me and my God. I can try everything to dispel the darkness, but nothing can bring back the Sun until the spiritual obstruction between us is forgiven and forsaken.
Listen to the hope Jesus talks about our word for today from the Word of God in John 8:12 - "I am the light of the world. He that follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
On Good Friday, I was thinking eclipse as I read again the account of Jesus' death on the cross. It says, "From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land." Just as He was saying, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:45-46).
At that moment Jesus was carrying all our sins in His soul (1 Peter 2:24). All the garbage of my life and yours. Paying my spiritual death penalty.
And all the darkness of all our sin came between God the Father and God the Son. God was turning His back on His Son so He would never have to turn His back on us.
And why? The Bible says, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
Without Him, the eclipse will last forever. With Him, the Light floods my soul. Sin is forgiven. Guilt is gone. Death has no fear. I am safe. I am never alone again.
The Sun has risen. Never to set again.